A new trend has been making the rounds on Instagram. And I’m not a fan. Let’s talk about the 5120×1080 Reels format.
To be fair, I’m all here for trends. When they make some kind of sense that is. And even then, I feel brands should be careful when jumping onto trends every chance they get, just because it will get them the views. If it doesn’t fit their brand narrative, there is no point in my opinion.
But I digress, cause this whole 5120×1080 Reels thing is a trend that I just wish would die (which it probably will in a week or so).
The thing is, in a sense I get it. 5120×1080 has something cinematic and it disrupts the mainly vertical feed we’re all used to. But it’s a very narrow size that doesn’t allow for a lot of info. I first saw Canva doing it.
Then other brands followed suit. I just don’t understand why… Well, no, that’s not entirely true. For videographers and such I can see that it’s a nice way to share panoramic footage. But even then, you’re not getting the full, well, picture, because it turns up so small on your phone and even on desktop, as it still needs to fit within the constraints of the platform.
As a brand, you can’t put a lot of info into that size. I don’t mean text per say, but even visuals get lost in this size. And if you zoom in, you just get a pixelated mess. This became very apparent when I saw (the first seconds of) social media management tool Later’s version of the trend on my phone. Illegible as fuck.
The only brands that I feel did a great job with this trend are Headspace and KitKat. Headspace turned it into the Tiniest scroll break, while KitKat just placed their bar front and center. They’re both using the disruptive nature of this format to their advantage by either literally referring to a break, or figuratively as that’s what the brand stands for. Next to that, both posts are very legible for such a narrow size. So props to them.
But I still want this trend to die. Preferably yesterday.
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